Los Rotos, Calle Huertas, The scene of our latest banqueting escapade and a short walk from metro Atocha. As we enter the very height of summer time here in Madrid, one could notice the difference as an assembly of many friendly faces got together to break bread. Those faces that one may only see sporadically throughout the year due to work commitments all came together, notably, holiday time was in full swing!
So as we entered, even though our table had been pre-booked for 17 peops, they hadn't banked on us actually turning up and so had to arrange tables. Not a huge deal but how and ever and we sat and perused our options. On offer for starters were a choice of ensalada mixta, ensalada rusa, salmorejo and gazpacho while for mains was an option of chistorra, boletus, pollo al curry, jamon, gulas, bacalao, morcilla de burgos, queso azul and one or two other extra ingredients on top of a bed of eggs and potatoes. With one drink included, we of course opted for the usual tinto tantaliser and all of this for €9.50. Now although the starters were lacking imagination, it wasn't unusual to find these bog standard choices on any menu del dia so so far they were performing on a level of offering, well, nothing special.
Unfortunately, amongst our heavy duty grubsters were 3 with egg allergies. I politely asked the manager if it would be possible to provide an option sin-huevo to keep everyone happy. This was responded with a stern “NO” as apparently “the owner would be losing too much money”, Eh?!?! This logic was not making much sense to me. “Yes of course you're right.” “Losing 17 people was a far more economically sound decision for the promotion and growth of your business!”
As I was wondering should I stay or should I go, a voice from the hatch to the kitchen said “Of course we can provide a dish to please all”, and suddenly pollo a la plancha was now on offer. A switch in role play here made everything a little bit more acceptable.
So now with our food served (although with a slight lack of the basics... Salsas, serviettes and cutlery), we dug into starters which were certainly nothing to write home to mammy about. This left me thinking, were the mains going to pull things around??
Well actually, our egg based dishes were delicious and certainly not lacking in portion, well, that is if you didn't have an alergy to pre-hatched chicklings as the pollo a la plancha left nothing AT ALL to the imagination. It was literally a chicken breast on a plate. No chips, no salad, just chicken. Well actually there was a fancy squiggle of soy sauce on there, almost as if to say... “I'm sorry I'm so pathetic!”. It was either that, or “This is nuevo cuisine, blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah!” Needless to say, maybe our unsuspecting visitors should have known that this place was all going to be a bit egg orientated but that leaves Los Rotos with no excuse for not trying to keep customers happy!
With coffees and postres consumed we cast our votes, and with a crecsendo of marks from one end of the table to the other, all in all, a 2.25 was the average when everyone had their say and left us feeling that little hueveria struggled to perform at a minimum level of service, especially with regard to customer relations, you're right Rotos, the customer is always wrong! It wasn't all bad however, our waiter was nice and did try to make the best of a bad situation.
Anyway, we upped sticks and left and across the street was a great little bar called Los Gatos which we have frequented in the past whenever we're in the area for a few cheeky canas. This is definitely a great little stop-off if ever you're nearby. Then, moving on up Calle Huertas we stopped off at another one or two pit-stops for re-fueling before making our way back up to base-camp at JJ's to catch the last of their 2 4 1'sies and basically spent the rest of the evening chugging and chatting as the fun continued until the wee hours. A great day out as usual but certainly not by the efforts of our below average eatery!
Next week sees the gang in another local tasting their take on what they call Menu Del Dia. Question is, will YOU be there??? Stay tuned as invite will be posted pronto! Until then however kids, it's chow for now!
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